What Do I Know?

What do I know?  No/thing.  And that’s everything.

Being in Becoming

Being and becoming, two halves of a whole.  Most of us search for essence, for permanence, but forget that we only arrive there through movement, through change.  We must first learn to still ourselves while moving:  to be while becoming.

What Do We Carry With Us When We Depart This Life?

What do we carry with us when we depart this life?  Our/selves.  What is our self? No/thing.  What is no/thing?  Energy perpetually shifting, changing shape every instant.  Where are we going? On another journey to another journey.

Moses’ Face Shone

Moses’ face shone with the light of the Source (Ex 34.29), the reflected radiance of a divine encounter and its presence (Shekinah) in the world through moral injunctions inscribed on stone tablets.  Light–inner awareness of the Source and of being–arises in us (as with Moses) when we connect a mystic moment to life. This is one purpose of our human incarnations:  to integrate being and becoming through right intention and action–character and ethics.

Poem of the Day: C.P. Cavafy, “In the Same Place”

“In the Same Place” by C.P. Cavafy (1863-1933):  my translation

Surroundings of home, cafes, a neighborhood,
that I have seen and walked through year after year.

I gave you form amid joy and amid sorrows:
with so many incidents, so many details.

And you have transmuted into a feeling for me.

—————————————–

Στον ίδιο χώρο

Οικίας περιβάλλον, κέντρων, συνοικίας
που βλέπω κι όπου περπατώ· χρόνια και χρόνια.

Σε δημιούργησα μες σε χαρά και μες σε λύπες:
με τόσα περιστατικά, με τόσα πράγματα.

Κ’ αισθηματοποιήθηκες ολόκληρο, για μένα.

Ultimate Questions

What is death? A transitional period of life.

What is life? Becoming.

Where are heaven and hell? Right next to each other, like the back and front of a door.

What is hell? A place in which we decide to reside until we decide to live elsewhere.

What is heaven? Home.

Who are we? No/thing, energy, crossing time and space, but not confined by them.

Who is the Source? Pure no/thing, raw energy out of which form emerges.

Time Never Stops

Time never stops. It is inexorable. In moments of joy and tragedy, the earth continues to rotate and the seasons continue to alternate. Shabbat and meditation offer a glimpse of existence outside of time. There we reside in the presence of the Source: no limits, no boundaries, only the vibrations of no/thing.

Warriors and Heroes

Those who live in pain–emotional, physical, or spiritual–who wake up in the morning, get out of bed, and engage in life are courageous warriors, authentic heroes.

Even eagles need a push…

A moving story of an eagle and her child.  ‘The Push, about a mother eagle’s supreme act of love – to give her children a push – when her offspring were ready to leave the nest”:
http://newsletter.simpletruths.com/a/tBMytFMB8PINaB8VatcNnRfx68F/movie

We Are All Related

We are all related in ways we do not see.

We Are Not Our Habits

We think we know who we are based on the activities in which we normally engage, by our personalities, by our hobbies, by our socio-economic statuses, ethnicities, and religions, by the ways we hold and move our bodies, or by the personal and professional roles we acquire in our lives. But do we? Are these what ultimately define us? I’m sure that these contribute to our development as beings and to our self-understanding, but they comprise only part of a much larger framework and foundation. We often focus on the easier-to-identify elements, but we don’t notice what may be even more illuminating and revealing.

James Kugel: The Little Self and the Big Self

I found this moving. It’s certainly not what I expected, and it reminds me of the classical mystical experience:  when you realize how small you are, how truly beautiful that is, and how you then can access the divine in ways you never thought possible.  We could also refer to it as the withdrawal of the ego.  To realize how interconnected we are, we must realize how small we are.  Those who have this experience are blessed and privileged.

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/02/07/2742888/approaching-god-from-the-still-small-self

Our Life Paths

A life path can seemingly take us up to the top of the mountain looking down or down to the bottom of the mountain looking up.  But our authentic selves are there in both places, waiting for our egos to set them free.

Not Yet

Something that is not yet can be–if you embody it.

Justice

Justice is rare, but always worth pursuing.  It is the hidden light we seek.

Patterns of Meaning and Purpose

Every move we make, even the mistakes, fit into a pattern of meaning and purpose, which reveals itself in time through wisdom.

I and You

The I resides in a body, but the authentic You resides everywhere.

What is the Source like?

What is the Source like?  Like the wind.  You cannot hold or see it, but it’s there just the same.

Freedom

Freedom is a choice we have every second of every day.

Starting Blocks and Finish Line

We do not start in the same place at the beginning of our lives.  It’s not where we end up that matters, but how far we travel.

How Large is God?

We should think of the Source (God) not as an enormous entity, but as the tiniest particle in existence–that from which everything originates.  That’s why we need to let go of our I, our ego.  It’s just too big.

We will do and We Will Hear (Ex 24.7)

We will do and we will hear (Ex 24.7): Action is the avenue to contemplation and enlightenment.  When you do a good deed, an act of lovingkindness, go and meditate afterwards. The universe will open to you in your humility.

Floating on a River

So often we seek to go somewhere, to reach a goal, but we’re all floating on a river toward the same place.

“God”

Instead of using a word for “God,” perhaps we should simply form an out breath–a glottal stop, like the Hebrew letter, “alef.”  When you want to say “God,” just speak with an exhalation.

“God”

The word, “God,” is a label that often cuts us off from “God,” our Source.

Labels

Rigid labels close us off from one another and ourselves.

Rebel Yoga: Tara Stiles

While many (including me) emphasize the religious and spiritual roots of yoga, Tara Stiles takes another approach.  She just wants people to do yoga and improve their lives and bodies.  She rebels against those teachers who see themselves as gurus.  Her goal is to make yoga accessible rather than difficult and total.  Deepak Chopra is among her students.  I am impressed by her authenticity and determination to simplify this ancient tradition.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/nyregion/23stretch.html?sq=yoga&st=cse&scp=2&pagewanted=all

Anger Transformed

Anger transformed can repair a world and heal a universe.

We Are All Adam

We are all Adam, part of the same cosmic body, reaching out from one end of the universe to the other.

Life Roles

Playing a role in life is a choice, but we can always set it aside and play another.

Creation

Creation is a flow of multiplicity in an ocean of oneness.

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Chaos

Chaos is always lurking behind sturdy structures, offering the possibility of change and thus transformation.  This is the story of Genesis and of our world today.

Gateways

Space between breaths, dawn and twilight, midnight, change of seasons, a new moon, being born, marrying, dying:  Gateways where the Source reveals Itself.

Self-Recognition

If we want others to see and acknowledge us, we must first see and acknowledge ourselves.

The Past and Wisdom

The past provides the experiential data out of which we create wisdom.

The One and the Many

Important matters are both more simple and more complex than we think.  I always find myself revolting against both those who facilely make broad generalizations and those who won’t say anything conclusive.  Events and ideas are more subtle than easy solutions or the denial of any solutions.  Such is the dynamic of the One and the Many.

Becoming

Becoming exists in the past and the future, not in the present.

Being and Becoming Again

Being born means that we enter creation:  Being and becoming are joined

Awareness

While we often sail along in life with seemingly nothing happening, awareness comes in explosive bursts, punctuating the monotony with volcanic eruptions.

Other times awareness slowly creeps up on us, grabbing us little by little as if it was always there.

A New Day

“A New Day”:  © 2010, Dr. Laurence H. Kant, Essay for the Evolutionary Envisioning Circle of the Annual Great Mother Celebration, September, 2010:  © 2010, Laurence H. Kant, All rights reserved:  NewDay1

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